NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 30 – The 2026 Innovate4Cities Conference (I4C26) opened in Nairobi with a community street art initiative designed to draw residents into conversations on climate action, urban development and the future of cities.In a departure from the traditional conference launch format, artists painted murals in public spaces across the city focusing on sustainability, climate resilience and the role communities play in shaping urban environments.The initiative brought together residents, policymakers, climate scientists and international delegates ahead of the week-long summit taking place at the United Nations Complex in Gigiri.The conference, being hosted in Africa for the first time, has placed housing, infrastructure and inclusive urban planning at the centre of global climate discussions.During a plenary session on housing and infrastructure, urban planners, climate scientists and policymakers warned that the success of future climate action efforts will largely depend on how cities accommodate rapidly growing populations.Speakers at the session argued that climate-resilient housing must become a core pillar of urban development strategies aimed at reducing emissions, managing disaster risks and improving public health.Anaclaudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, challenged the common belief that informal settlements arise solely from disorderly urban growth.According to Rossbach, many informal settlements are a reflection of broader urban planning systems that fail to provide affordable and adequate housing for low- and middle-income residents.“We see how this is not necessarily unplanned urbanisation. In many cases, it reflects broader planning systems that exclude certain segments of society,” she said.Rossbach further linked recurring floods, fires and droughts in cities such as Nairobi to planning models that fail to recognise the social and ecological role of land.“Land has a social and ecological function, and it cannot be used to the detriment of nature and society,” she said.She warned that failure to embed this principle in urban planning has contributed to urban sprawl, rising carbon emissions and widening social inequalities.Rossbach noted that improving housing systems and upgrading informal settlements could significantly strengthen climate mitigation and adaptation efforts in cities.Climate scientist Debra Roberts, a Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Cities, stressed the need to integrate housing and infrastructure planning to protect vulnerable communities from long-term climate risks.Roberts called for increased investment in climate-resilient public services, nature-based solutions and inclusive settlement upgrading programmes that strengthen communities while reducing environmental harm.The importance of involving residents directly in urban planning was also highlighted by Veronica Garcia, Costa Rica’s ambassador to Kenya.“Residents must be part of the planning process as co-creators and decision-makers,” Garcia said, adding that local knowledge should guide development interventions from the earliest stages.Delegates further warned that while carbon removal technologies continue to evolve, they remain insufficient on their own to reverse the pace of global warming in the near future.Several speakers argued that cities will play a decisive role in shaping the global climate response, particularly through sustainable housing and infrastructure strategies.Closing the session, Nairobi County Executive Committee Member for Housing Maureen Njeri urged stakeholders to move beyond dialogue and accelerate implementation of practical solutions.“The solutions discussed here must move beyond research and be scaled into projects that strengthen Nairobi’s resilience and can be replicated across Africa,” she said.The discussions carried particular significance for Nairobi, where an estimated 60 per cent of residents live in informal settlements vulnerable to flooding, heat stress and inadequate drainage infrastructure.Participants agreed that community-led upgrading of informal settlements, backed by science-driven planning and climate financing, offers one of the clearest pathways to building resilient African cities.As attention shifts toward COP31, delegates said Nairobi’s success will ultimately be measured not by conference discussions alone, but by how quickly climate commitments are translated into tangible housing and slum-upgrading projects that directly improve the lives of residents.